By H.M. Cauley

Drive through some of Atlantas established neighborhoods, and its hard to find a garage facing the street. Intown neighborhoods were often laid out with streetscapes that focused on front porches and sidewalks rather than places to park the car.

But behind those houses, many developers laid out networks of alleys that linked to freestanding garages, back yards and, most frequently, the trash bins. While many of those access ways have disappeared, either overgrown or reclaimed into existing lots, some still exist. In Virginia-Highland, alleys behind Maiden Lane between Barnett and Frederica streets have become a source of community connection, bringing neighbors together to make them functional once more.

If you go back and look at the [neighborhood] plat, you see the alley was designed for garbage collection and utilities, said Jeffrey Keesee, a 2-year resident of the neighborhood who has been one of the catalysts behind the alley cleanup. But for years, its been a primary access way for AT&T because theres a power line back there. We own it collectively, but it still has an easement for utility access.

Keesee and his neighbors along St. Charles Avenue knew of other alleys that had been restored. One in Poncey-Highland was reclaimed with new plantings; another off Virginia Avenue has become a popular path where neighbors have held yard sales. But it wasnt until a brush fire in their alley last winter that Keesee and his colleagues got serious about making improvements.

People were camping back there, and they built a fire that got out of control, said Keesee. Thats when everybody said, Lets be proactive. We had several clean-up dates in February and March, and then we received a $1,000 Love Your Block grant from the city.

The money went toward eradicating the undergrowth, adding gravel and taking out some trees. The neighbors also had help from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which, instead of money, sent 30 college students to do some of the heavy lifting. The neighbors also decided to drop the word alley when referring to the area, and instead, they now call it Maiden Trail.

There were negative connotations about saying alley, said Keesee. And since the trail lines up with Maiden Lane, the named seemed to fit.

This summer, the trail has developed a following of residents from the surrounding community.

There are about 500 households withing walking distance of this alley, so theres a lot of foot traffic back there now, said Keesee. We could have fenced it all off and not dealt with it, but we decided to create a situation that invites more people to use it. We changed the alley into a feature rather than an issue.

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Our Town: Atlanta

As the sun started to set and the sky darkened on Wednesday, residents of the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground sat on the porches of their brightly colored Victorian gingerbread houses. Facing the Tabernacle, they waited for their cue.

At 8:50 p.m., Bob Cleasby carried a round paper lantern down the Tabernacles center aisle and hung it out front. As soon as Mr. Cleasby hung the lantern, it was time for the Camp Ground to light up. Brightly colored paper lanterns bordering the Tabernacle were turned on and in unison, people waiting eagerly on their porches illuminated the paper lanterns hanging from their cottages. By 8:51 p.m., the neighborhood was aglow. It was the 146th Grand Illumination.

Bob Cleasby led the crowd in song. Mark Lovewell

The Grand Illumination, which takes place on the third Wednesday of every August, is an evening steeped in tradition from beginning to end. The night began with a performance by the Vineyard Haven Band, which was formed in the same year that the Grand Illumination first took place. Mr. Cleasby then led a community sing-along, during which he directed the audience as they sang songs such as Ive Been Working on the Railroad, The Swiss Navy (a crowd favorite), and other upbeat and patriotic tunes. Close to 10,000 people take part in the ceremony and stroll around the brightly decorated neighborhood afterwards, while the band continues to play.

Per Illumination tradition, the oldest member of the Camp Ground lights the first paper lantern that Mr. Cleasby then hangs up. This persons identity is kept secret until the night of the event. This year, the honor went to Bill Nicholson, who is 91 years old. Right before lighting the lantern, he came onstage with his wife Barbara, who has been coming to the Camp Ground since 1930. Mr. Nicholson first came to the Island in the 1940s, when he was a radar specialist at a naval air base here. He met Mrs. Nicholson at Inkwell Beach while she was vacationing with her grandfather. A few years later, the couple married and bought a cottage in the Camp Ground, where they live to this day. Mr. Nicholson recalled living in the cottage years ago when it had no hot water and the couple heated the bedrooms by cutting a hole in the ceiling on the first floor.

Other traditions are more personal. Mr. Cleasbys wife, Marietta, spends the morning and afternoon of each Illumination night doing a themed painting of the Camp Ground. This is a tradition she has kept for close to 50 years.

Each lantern has a story. Mark Lovewell

I paint all day long and I finally raise my head and I look up and I go Gosh, its 6o clock! and then I have to hurry to get over here, she said.

This year, Mrs. Cleasby chose to paint the front of the Tabernacle. Mrs. Cleasby also had the honor of painting the lantern that Mr. Nicholson lit, going the lantern with an image of the Tabernacle as well.

As people strolled around the beautifully lit neighborhood, they enjoyed a mix of lanterns both modern and old-fashioned. Some lanterns, like the ones that decorated Steve and Dawn McKennas house, date back to the mid 1800s. Though Mr. McKenna is not certain of the lanterns exact ages, hes been able to make a pretty good estimate by looking at how the American flag is painted on the lanterns.

Link:
Tradition Lights the Way at Grand Illumination Night

Olive Tomlinson remembered the cottages and the shared car rides, the simplicity of summer life. With just a few phrases, Jessica Harris evoked memories of front porches and morning swims. Skip Finley recalled his first summer jobs, coin diving, then dessert making at the Ocean View. David Van Allen spoke of basketball tournaments and dances at Cottagers Corner, where 45s spun on turntables and gave way over time to DJ equipment.

Rep. Barbara Lee was a cosponsor of the bill that created Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Mark Lovewell

The same families would come back, Mr. Van Allen said of his summers in Oak Bluffs. And with your own children, it starts all over. Mr. Van Allen is the fifth generation in his family to own Shearer Cottage, a bed and breakfast founded in 1912 by Charles Shearer, a former slave.

Mr. Van Allen was one of several residents who joined a panel discussion at Oak Bluffs: A Place of Pride and History, an event last Thursday devoted to discussing the role Oak Bluffs has played in the African American community. Nearly 200 people came to Union Chapel for the afternoon discussion and film screening, which was sponsored by Marthas Vineyard Magazine in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution.

Oak Bluffs, Ms. Harris said, is a place of repose and reconnection.

Soon, Oak Bluffs and its deep sense of local community will be connected to the international community as well. It is one of 10 towns that will be featured in a permanent exhibition called The Power of Place, at the Smithsonians National Museum of African American History and Culture. The museum is scheduled to open in 2016.

Thursdays event was a chance to learn about the development of the museum itself, in addition to how Oak Bluffs came to be featured at the museum.

Jessica Harris said Oak Bluffs is a place of repose and reconnection. Mark Lovewell

Oak Bluffs is indeed a powerful place in our African American community and in the United States, said featured speaker Barbara Lee, who represents Californias 13th District in the House of Representatives and was a cosponsor of the 2003 bill that created the museum.

Ms. Lee is no stranger to the power of place, she said. Being in Oak Bluffs, she added, really settles my spirit.

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Celebrating History, Sense of Community in Oak Bluffs

People who live in The Village claim someone is stealing things from their front yards and porches at night.

Two of our large concrete statues, like, I had a giant rooster or chicken out that probably weighed a good 50 pounds or more, said resident Terri Nichols. "And it disappeared along with a coyote statue that was right on my front porch.

Thieves have looted Nichols front yard several times. She said she has lost everything from lawn decorations to garden lights, and shes not alone. Several houses suffered the same fate.

Should have paid more attention and taken my things inside, I guess. Well be doing that now, said another neighbor. "Its very unsettling and upsetting that this is happening in our little homey area."

Nichols installed an alarm around her house to keep crooks away. She said the thought of them coming back again is terrifying.

The thieves were right here at my front porch while we were home, looking in my front window, she said.

Not only did thieves steal their property; they also took their peace of mind.

I hate feeling suspicious now when people walk by," Nichols said. "You didnt used to think that much of it. Now its like, it makes you nervous.

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Neighborhood on edge after thieves hit homes

Fascinating, intriguing, or thoughtful tales about people and places in Coronado History presented by your Coronado Historical Association

It was eminent, dramatic, and in its own evocative way a landmark. But it was also the Coronado hotel that youve probably never heard of.

It was built at the same time as the Hotel del Coronado by the same architect. It offered dazzling views, soaring towers and stylish balconies ... and a fresh-swept tidiness with none of that pesky beach sand.

The Hotel Josephine was stirring and conspicuous as sure to catch the eye in 1887 as it would today. Built of the Eastlake architectural style, the hotel rose three-stories high with offices, shops and 64 rooms (and with a fourth half-story for servants and staff). It stood on the highest point in Coronado on Orange Avenue between Third and Fourth Streets.

Hotel Josephine was the handsome big building you saw when you looked across the bay from San Diego or gazed up from the breezy deck of a Coronado ferry ... not the better-known big hotel on the beach.

From Josephines top floors you could look out toward Point Loma with unobstructed views or peer down on ferries coming and going. The hotel featured a large ballroom, many uncluttered meeting rooms, and large comfortable porches designed specifically to catch the airs.

If Hotel Josephine lived today it would be the center of spirited and, undoubtedly, popular campaigns celebrating a triumph of historical preservation.

To differentiate itself, Josephine advertised its value as a First Class Family Hotel. Businessmen, house builders and long-term residents were just as likely to be seen on Josephines wide and comfortable verandas as vacationers.

As conspicuous as it was, Josephine also benefited from a quirk involving its frontage on Orange Avenue. When the first trolley tracks were laid on Orange from the ferry to the Hotel Del, the grade was considered excessive between Third and Fourth Streets so that area was excavated several feet lower. The result (that can still be seen today) was that buildings on either side of Orange look higher and more prominent.

The first meeting of the newly constituted Board of Trustees of the Coronado Beach Company (Coronados City Council of the day) was held at Hotel Josephine on 15 December 1890. For sixteen years, the hotel acted as the citys first city hall with scheduled meetings of the Board and city committees devoted to Finance, Streets and Sewers, Fire and Water, Parks and Shade Trees, and Waterfront & Public Buildings. The city relocated its city hall to the Coronado Beach Company offices at First and Orange in 1906.

The rest is here:
Field Guide To Coronado History: Coronados OTHER Grand Hotel

Los Porches 313

By: Paula Pazos

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Los Porches 313 - Video

By Corinne Reilly The Virginian-Pilot August 13, 2014

PORTSMOUTH

Norfolk Naval Shipyard officials hope to restore a historic home that has housed the facility's commanders since the 1800s. It was heavily damaged Tuesday in an early morning fire.

Known as Quarters "A," the stately brick house was built in 1837 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

With wide windows and two staircases leading to the front door, the home's interior boasts Italian marble fireplaces, large archways and two kitchens. Enclosed porches look out over lush grounds.

Outside the house Tuesday afternoon, the air smelled of smoke. A gaping hole took the place of the middle top-story window, and there was a wide, blackened hole in the roof.

The top floor was "engulfed" when firefighters arrived, said Jeff Cunningham, a shipyard spokesman.

"This was a major fire with very significant damage," Cunningham said.

He said it will take time to determine exactly how much work will have to be done, but "our goal is to restore it as it was.

"Absolutely."

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Historic home burns at Norfolk Naval Shipyard

Porches of Pendleton
A perfect getaway to celebrate my mom #39;s birthday...thank you Deb and Tex for an unforgettable visit!

By: Amy Beth Limina

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Porches of Pendleton - Video

Ridge porches

By: Bill Martindale

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Ridge porches - Video

Carlos Domunguez en Los Porches.

By: jennifer12767

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Carlos Domunguez en Los Porches. - Video